Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

This essay will focus specifically on two of Shakespeare’s most prolific works: the tragedies

of Macbeth and King Lear . As typical of literary works, and especially those Shakespearean,

there are many interpretations that can be made of Macbeth and King Lear . This essay is written

from the base analysis of the plays themselves; and with reference to a psycho-literary

interpretation, in regard to the overarching themes of madness in both the plays.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth was written in the dawn of the 17 th century, and is the shortest albeit

the most violent and intense of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The play is loosely set in the Scottish

Highlands of the 11 th century – but often alludes to 17 th century events, referring to the interest

in witchcraft at the time, and to the new King of England and Scotland, James VI and I. The

titular character Macbeth is the Thane of Glamis; a loyal subject to his king, Duncan, and a

valiant soldier. Macbeth’s hubris is his deadly ambition – a fatal flaw in every sense of the

word. Macbeth’s hunger for power and pressures from his formidable wife drives him to a

vivid state of madness: faced with fearsome hallucinations and wandering monologues within

the depths of his own mind. Macbeth chronicles the story of a noble warrior, seemingly

faultless in his loyalty to king and country; who is tempted by the sins of ambition, seduction,

and greed (Cambridge School of Shakespeare, 2014). Tempted by the supernatural, Macbeth

strays further from ‘God’s light’ as the play progresses, ensnaring himself in a web of irreverent

murder and betrayal. The relationship between Macbeth and his wife is complex and

multifaceted, and rapidly transforms over the course of the play. Despite the clear resentment

between the two, they are toxically interdependent on one another, which morphs into sombre

alienation. A key in the emphatic relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is in their

entwined descent into madness – as their passion is marred by murderous intention, and the

features of madness bloom within their thoughts.

The tragedy of King Lear chronicles the gradual descent of a ruler into madness, and is revered

as one of Shakespeare’s most felicitous depictions of mentality due to its notable observations

Extended Essay

ENGLISH A1

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